Note that 1st visits for the year are marked
in red.
Where noted the sex of the butterfly is mentioned
as some species can be quite different between Male and Female
and whichever is spotted second is highlighted with green.
Our first sighting!
A Male Brimstone fluttered along the bund
then into our Garden on March 14th - our Wedding Anniversary!
Lorraine then had a suspected sighting of the Comma
on the 15th and was able to confirm it on Saturday March 17th!
Sunday March 25th - the return of the Small Tortoishell
and spotted the Male Brimstone again whilst Monday March 26th brought the
return of the Peacock - the run of good spring
weather has done well for us. This breaks our 2 year hiatus with no Butterflies
seen in March for 2005 and 2006 and now equals our 2004 tally. April arrives
and we have had 3 of the above return during a spell of warm weather leading
up to Easter (Male Brimstone, Small Tortoishell and Peacock) and we've
also had a white butterfly quickly pass through that looked suspiciously
like a Female Brimstone whilst the Comma briefly
returned as well. Wednesday April 11th and first sighting of a Male Green Veined White along the back and in the garden.
Lorraine and I both saw the Speckled Wood butterfly
zip past us along the bund on the 14th. Back from our Algarve holiday and
April 28th we had the return of the Male Orange Tip
and the Female Holly Blue plus confirmation
of the Male Large White as well as Speckled
Wood, Male Brimstone, Small Tortoishell and either the Green Veined or Small
White. Confirmation of the Small White now
on Sunday April 29th! This now makes at least 9 different butterflies seen
during April which for us is a record! May 1st has started May off well with
7 butterflies seen: Orange Tip, GVW, Holly Blue, LW, Speckled Wood, Small
Tortoishell and a Peacock - there's even a possibility that one of the smaller
white butterflies was a Small White! Long period during most of May with
very few butterflies due to the weather but occasionally saw the Lge/Sm White
but on May 31st a nice surprise when we had the return of the Red Admiral during a warm sunny period during the
afternoon. Next Day and June gets off to a good start when Lorraine sees
the Large Skipper in the Bund grass as well
as the Red Admiral, Brimstone and one of the white butterflies. Since then
June has been a bit of a washout with lots of rain and only occasional clear
periods. During this time we did have the Speckled Wood make a brief comeback
adding to our June list and on Thursday June 21st we had the first Meadow Brown (Male) seen in the bund. A nice surprise
considering the weather but our first Painted Lady
of the year has arrived on Saturday afternoon June 23rd along with a Red
Admiral and a Small Tortoishell so June has now equalled the 2006 number of
different butterflies seen. First day of July and two butterflies - 2 Small Tortoishells
and 2 male Large Skippers and the days up to July 6th we've had Red Admirals,
and the first return of the Ringlet on the
6th. By Monday July 9th we had also seen a Small White, Male Meadow Brown
and 2 Commas and on the 12th we had a Large White put in an appearance. July
has mostly had terrible weather with some parts of Horncastle under water!
July 16th we had the return of the Male Gatekeeper
and on July 23rd the first sighting of the Essex Skipper.
The next day we also had a Small Skipper come
and land in the garden although we've not seen it since (not surprising
considering the rain!) and we've also had several butterflies pop back including
the Speckled Wood and Holly Blue so July has been OK despite the worst
efforts of the weather! Now August 1st and we've already had 9 different
butterflies on the first day so lets hope it bodes well for the few that
have yet to return. August has been very mixed with lots of poor weather
again which has severly affected the return of several regulars. Despite
this August still managed to have 16 different Butterflies coming into our
Garden and the Bund directly behind us. With the onset of September again
very poor weather means we have lost most ofthe Butterflies we'd expect to
see if the weather was warmer and as we approach the end of the month we
have counted just 8 different Butterflies. Missing Butterflies (or at least
we haven't spotted them here) are: Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Copper
and the Wall Butterfly. We have had a nice surprise now with a Small White
visiting the garden on a warmish Oct 4th in the afternoon! Latest update
is that during the warm days we've had in the first couple of weeks of October
we've also had the Red Admiral, Large White and Small Tortoishell
so October has seen 4 butterflies hold on. However we've now started to get
some frosty nights and they turned out to be the last butterflies of the
year for us.